Collards in flower

Collards form towers of flowersCarpenter bee hanging from a collard flower

Have you ever bought some bok choy and left it in the fridge while you figured out what to do with it until it opened up bright yellow flowers? That’s why my collard plants did, only six feet tall. Tall, outspread candelabrae of flat yellow flowers just begging for big fat bees. It’s covered in bees, carpenter bees the size of your thumb.

It’s an impressive climax to plants that gave me several batches of greens, even in the winter. They grow easily. The leaves taste so strong, that bugs and slugs pretty much leave them alone. Though you need to cook them for a couple hours to get tender, they’re really good for you. As suggested by this article, I even tried harvesting some unopened flowers and cooking them, too. That wasn’t so successful. Let the bees enjoy them.